Increase the 218 character filename length limit to open files in excel
Excel can't open files with full path lengths greater than 218 characters as documented in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/213983. This is still a problem in Office 2016. It seems crazy that Excel can't open a valid file that the filesystem allows. People have been complaining about this since Office 2000. The thread below has over 11 thousand views and there are plenty others. Please fix this. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office2013release-excel/sorry-unable-to-find/595333d0-1463-499f-967e-4da8ac2e2047
Anonymous
shared this idea
Hello,
I am excited to announce that we have completed the work to enable longer file name and paths in Excel for desktop. This was a significant change that required work on multiple parts of the product beyond open and save, since the file path is used in other features like external links.
Before this change, Excel for desktop could open and save files with a full path length of up to 218 characters.
Starting a few weeks ago, all Office 365 users in the monthly channel (CC – current channel, build 12624.20466 or above) are able to open and save files up to 2034 characters. However, in practice there are lower limits imposed by the file system:
- Windows local and UNC files: 260 characters
- OneDrive/SharePoint files synced to the local drive: 260 characters
- OneDrive/SharePoint files opened directly from the cloud: 400 characters
Thanks again for your continued feedback.
Best,
David [Microsoft Excel Team]
285 comments
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Anonymous
commented
By using Long Path Tool, I fixed windows files issue
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Roy
commented
Michael Durand's comment spurred a search on my part that must have been different from my previous searches 'cause I came across a Microsoft document on the subject that did not say it as a particular point, but did talk about Windows API32 and Shell limits now being whichever setting you have, either out-of-the-box (=260 characters) or the NTFS limit now possible in Windows (=32767 characters) settings, for MAX_PATH length.
It also talked about UNC aspects, including some limitations and behaviors, and the two pieces together give me the impression that "David" (when he states the first limitation in his comment above) means exactly this, essentially the MAX_PATH length, and so:
1) IF you have set your system for the 32767 limit, and
2) IF the program of interest is manifested (and includes a statement allowing the longer paths — just being manifested is not enough),then the limit "David" mentions should be 32767 characters, not 260 characters.
However, even if you set your system and the program is manifested with the statement for this, you could STILL run into issues depending upon how it actually interacts with the file system for each kind of interaction. If it interacts for whatever via the Shell, it could limit that interaction to just the 260 character limit, although other places I've searched say that the Shell started being able to accept the MAX_PATH length sometime in 2016, though no one talks about the "except's" that probably exist. However, any new program ought to (you know, you really wish this were so, right, since it means people are just stupid if not so) perform all tasks consistent with the longer paths so long as it also allows them in general. But older programs, like Excel, might have lots of un-modernized code so...
Also, the document included the point, not emphasized, just included, that the filename itself, irrespective of any allowable total path length, cannot be longer than exactly 260 characters. So while your PATH can be VERY long, the filename itself, cannot be. Not usually a problem for our needs HERE, but good to know. Also, regardless of your path's allowed length, but particularly for the short, default, setting of 260 characters (256 plus some "faux" bytes), you CANNOT use so many characters in the PATH portion that you end up with less than exactly 12 ("8.3") characters left for use by the filename (even if the filename is actually shorter than that). Seems a good chance many refusals by Excel that are bizarre-seeming could be subject to this.
(I'm still imagining the second and third limits he mentions are really One Drive and SharePoint limits, not really Excel's although Excel might enforce them to avoid nasty surprises for users. Of course... who knows, right?)
Well, all that, and still... if it were so, why would they be cagey about it instead of braying it about everywhere? So...
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Michael Durand
commented
Hello David,
Thank you ; anyway the limitatino on Windows local files is not really an Operating system limitation, becasuse there are all the functions in the Windows SDK to access files with very long path... It is mostly a matter of adapting the Office suite to use these functions... In the meantime, this limitation is so frustrating... -
Roy
commented
Actually, that link below is a good thing. Used to be the fully resolved path was the length but now it looks like OneDrive and SahrePoint only go back to the URL.
When he says "Windows local and UNC files: 260 characters" is only being enforced by the file system, NOT by Excel itself, that's also good because you can increase the file system's limit to 32,767 characters. I bet there's a far lower limit still hard-coded into Excel that is much, much lower than that but still it's something more.
They cannot have done more than cosmetic change, like suppress Excel evaluating the length and refusing before ever presenting to the file system. So chances are there are secondary limits they will only be finding out about from people complaining (certainly not from analyzing code from 37-38 years ago). So people need to experiment! And complain! I mean, report their findings. Sadly, for MS, that is the same thing as no other avenue is available to most.
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Ken
commented
David,
Regarding your stated limits for "Windows local and UNC files", is this only individual filename or foldernames, or does this limit apply to the total file path?
The link below seems to indicate that the 260 limit applies to individual foldername and filenames, whereas the full path limit is 400.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/invalid-file-names-and-file-types-in-onedrive-and-sharepoint-64883a5d-228e-48f5-b3d2-eb39e07630fa#:~:text=File%20name%20and%20path%20lengths,-Applies%20to%3A&text=The%20entire%20decoded%20file%20path,and%20file%20name%20after%20decoding. -
Raju Alluri
commented
Hello ,
When we save the file system dont give us any errors and when we download the file it does, its so frustrating that we already have multiple nested folder and user saved the links as favorites. Now restructuring the folder by manually calculating the url limit is not the reality. Microsoft should come up with some kind of workaround by shortening the URL if its crosses the said limit.
Everyone moved from windows to cloud so in terms of user experience prospective it should exactly work the same how it was with windows.
Thanks
Raju Alluri -
Anonymous
commented
Does anyone know when this will be fixed in the semi annual channels?
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Roy
commented
Something from the link Anonymous gave... MS fixing Word problems that we in Excel can only DREAM of having:
"We fixed an issue where files with long path names (greater than 32K) would not open and an appropriate error message was not being displayed."
(Sigh...) Those poor folks with path names longer than 32K who couldn't open their files and no message was even being given to them... those poor, long-suffering souls... it must've been just awful. Just awful.
Gosh, maybe it makes me glad we in Excel don't face such concerns. You know, "maybe."
I think I could live with a real limit of 32,767 characters, if I had no real choice. It could be better than 218 or 260... but gee, with no error message if I went over? The horror...
Could we get maybe one or two of Word's project managers on the Excel crew? I have the feeling their take on customer service is different than we here are used to. A LOT different. On the other hand, it just might ruin them instead, I guess. I've noticed the outside world for about 50 years and a major mouthwash company has repeatedly ("almost constantly" would be valid, almost) been fined for claiming they "kill the germs that cause bad breath" that whole time, so perhaps corporate philosophies don't ever change. Yay. Still, I'm selfish enough to see the experiment tried.
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Anonymous
commented
Why is there no mention in Office 365 release notes about this fix (on Microsoft web site)?
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Roy
commented
@Justin: I created a file with the name 1234567890.txt, then renamed it:
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890.txt
which is an "800.3" filename... Notepad would not save it as that, but I used Explorer to serve up the file and rename it and it took the name change nicely. Then Notepad was able to open it, which seems interesting since it would not save it as such. Hmmm... should've tried saving the existing file, see if it was just creation it would not do, or saving in general...
It saves it. So it won't create one with a name that long, but it will save it. Word opens it nicely. Excel... nah, and tells me some reasons why it's probably my fault...
Along the way, "Copy CON" in a command window would not save the file with the long name. Won't seem to open it either though I was not exhaustive testing that.
So I believe I can say Explorer seems to work with it with the feature enabled. And it presents no problems for normal day-to-day use. I've used it for three years now, second computer with it though both were Windows 10, with no identifiable problems.
Excel appears to "do it all on its own" though, surely a relic of the days when neither DOS not Windows could be relied on for adequate services. My believe, given the recent claim, has settled to the idea that they still have not or cannot replace the basic funcitonality ("yet"... hopefully) but someone got clever and found a way to at least allot the entire 256 (+4 pseudobytes) to the path rather than having to reserve some to the internal path (sheet, row, column... absolute, relative... etc.).
But to move forward with certain products of the SharePoint kind, they HAVE to solve it or lose out. I do believe they couldn't care less in the long run as I believe they desire us to all move to Power BI so as to force us then into Power Apps so a spreadsheet creator/maintainer and 5 users stop being a person already paying for Excel and 5 others already paying for Excel ven though they use 11 spreadsheets, not just one, and become a set of those (STILL already paying for Excel) now paying 6 license fees every month... for EACH of the 11 apps that replace direct use of the spreadsheets and so now taking 6 license fees for Excel and 66 more for the 11 apps multiplying earnings by 12.
But to addict people to the necessary functionality, SharePoint is an easier "gateway drug" to sell, then on to the hard stuff with the Power BI, then Power Apps pathway. Thing is, if your gateway drug (SharePoint) sucks at showing off the concept, well, that won't work. So they need it to work and not shock people with the immediate idea of slowly doing away with Excel. So... maybe they will someday figure a fix for it.
If they could just overcome the insistence upon changing a specified path to a fullblown literal path so we could alias source with drive names, say, all the world would be able to sigh contentedly, carp a little bit about "well WE aren't allowed to do that", and move on. But... hopefully... baby steps...
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Justin
commented
@Gary - from what I can tell that doesn't work for Windows Explorer. It works great in Powershell though. Why is explorer missing the long path aware statement in the manifest? Either I'm doing something wrong or Microsoft needs to get that working before it's even worth bothering to make Excel open longer paths?
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Gary
commented
However, in practice there are lower limits imposed by the file system:
- Windows local and UNC files: 260 characters
- OneDrive/SharePoint files synced to the local drive: 260 charactersWas this issue not addresses in Windows 10 with Long Paths?
- Enable Long Paths in Windows 10, Version 1607, and Later
Starting in Windows 10, version 1607, MAX_PATH limitations have been removed from common Win32 file and directory functions. However, you must opt-in to the new behavior. -
Roy
commented
So... who wants to start the:
Increase the 260 character filename length limit to open files in excel
suggestion? I'm on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List so I can't have my name on it. Too public. I can't even comment on things.
Doh!
(Lord, five more years to get what? 42 more characters? 302 then, not 260?)
Since the base was 260 before they started, you KNOW the real fix here was to make Excel not reserve space for the inside-the-file referencing (sheet, cell, that kind of thing) so now the "whole" (not "whopping" which is a much finer "who-***" word) 260 characters they could coax out before are available for name and path. And four of those were finesse bytes.
Oh, they didn't separate internal and external references in an address? That 260 characters will STILL have the internal address subtracted and STILL be 218 characters in the end?
Well, sh*t.
Guess we don't need the above suggestion, just a new instance of this one. Here's the title folks:
Increase the 218 character filename length limit to open files in excel
See you in five more years. (And in between, I know you were hoping, but no. In between too.)
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Justin
commented
How is this a fix? I can open a document in Word with more than 260 characters in the path, Windows Explorer works fine (with long filename support enabled). Yet Excel, after this "fix", is still limited to 260 characters?
Edited to say: Word only goes a bit further than Excel...
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Roy
commented
Completed so it should work... oh...
The part that I've never quite acceepted is how Excel has to directly address, through a very full and complete addres, the file in question. Why is it Excel cannot have whatever (stupid one, not some defensible one) internal limit, but then present to the file system for fulfillment? Why must it have a full, "true" address?
Anything moving out of the current directory should be immediately presented to the file system for resolution and opening the file in memory for Excel to address directly there. So I have a 12,000 character path? I alias it as "K:" and Excel sees two characters of its internal limit used.
IUn Rap music, you don't hear a lot about "OG" anymore. 'Cause there's more generations of OG artists then current artist. Excel is OG, and O-Ver when it comes to some things. They were clearly written with no vision in the days of no networking to speak of and, if you remember, with a file system that did not "do" directories. (Yeah, really.)
Those pieces need rewritten. And if that requires a ground up rewrite of Excel, I'm good with that. So long as they use a little vision this ttime.
A point about the above Completed message. Window local and UNC files... 260 characters... how about if one has activated the 32767 character version of things? Still 260 I bet. Mendacity. "Imposed by the filesystem but still a thing even if the filesystem does NOT impose that limit" is simply a way of lying.
Hopefully, they will expand on the above and show that no, that's not so, if you activated it, you can do whatever Excel can (2,034 characters, apparently — wonder how THAT number is derived???). My apologies, sort of, then, but seriously, does anyone expect that is so?
Presumably the first SharePoint limit above reflects the first limit above, and the second SharePoint limit reflects SharePoint's own limit (which, again presumably, will be changing SOON to allow much longer paths).
You know: presumably.
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Anonymous
commented
Wonderful. However, this is why excel can't open my sharepoint files:
Yup, that is the "filename" that excel tries to open from a Teams or SharePoint site. 320 characters.
This is stupid. My file name including a directory structure for this file in Teams is only 131 characters. Yet, the path including the URL is well over the character limit.
However, if I select "download" from within SharePoint, and then select "Open" and use Excel as the app to open it, then it will open. WTH Mircrosoft? I can open it using download, but can't open it in the app directly?
Why can't Microsoft do things that allow for their applications to work well together. It is baffling to me why they put this limit on length and then create a URL that exceeds it, so the files can't be opened even though the options to open in the App from SharePoint and Teams is an option.Leave it to Microsoft to ignore the obvious.
And, don't get me started on the Excel Online version. It's garbage. MS says it operates just like the app with some limitations. Yeah, those limitations make it useless. Some formulas don't work, or are not available in the Online version. I guess for the average user who really doesn't use Excel to do real work won't care, but there are many of us who go beyond keeping a shopping list that really need to do work.
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Srdjan
commented
Microsoft again proving it's out of touch with it's users. Still can't open excel files that exceed the character limit.
One drive lengthily name certainly didn't help.
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Stephen Rutherford
commented
Dear Microsoft,
Great to know that work started in October 2019.
I am writing this in April 2020.
What is the expected release date for the fix?Stephen Rutherford
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Anonymous
commented
Use the Long Path Tool which will let you easily delete, copy or rename long path files. Works for me all the time!
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Steve
commented
Please Microsoft, give us an indication of progress on this... 'Started' is meaningless unless you also give an estimated availability. If it is on the Office 365 roadmap, it would be great to know where it is along the route. This is a big issue thanks to the ridiculously verbose path lengths created by sharepoint / Onedrive. The low Excel character limit just puts a spotlight on it. Please fix it SOON.